[Assessment of the sound level in the operating room during urological surgery]

In the operating room, a high sound level is associated with a higher risk of complications and affects the communication between the various workers. The objective of this study was to assess the sound level at the operating room during urological procedures.

A monocentric cross-sectional study was carried out in 100 procedures in urology. They were divided into four groups: open surgical procedures, endoscopic procedures, pure laparoscopic procedures, and robotic-assisted laparoscopic procedures. The sound level was measured with the Sound Metter by Examobile application (Bielsko-Biała, Poland) for i-phone^®.

For all procedures, mean sound level, mean minimum sound level and mean maximum sound level were 60.31±3.3 db, 52.42±2.6 db and 81.73±2.8 db, respectively. For endourological procedures, they were 61.6±4.1 db, 53.4±4.1 db and 81.3±3.1 db, respectively. For open surgery, they were 59.0±1.0 db, 51.6±1.8 db and 81.4±1.5 db, respectively. For laparoscopic surgery, they were 58.33±0.6 db, 50.66±1.2 db and 83.33±1.5 db, respectively. Robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery, they were 60.0±2.4 db, 52.5±2.3 db and 83.56±1.8 db, respectively. No difference was found according to the type of surgical approach. However, the sound level in the operating room was increased for endourological procedures using the laser technology as compared to endourological procedures without laser used (58.7±1.1 vs. 66.3±0.1 db, P=0.01, respectively).

The sound level in the operating room during urological procedures was high. For the endourological procedures, the sound level was the highest when the laser technology was used.

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